Costa Rican specialty coffee enters the Chinese market
For a family-owned coffee exporter in the Tarrazú region — China market research, retail packaging and Chinese labelling, brand rework, and entry into e-commerce and specialty café channels.
Region：Costa Rica → China
Background
The client is a third-generation family coffee mill and exporter in the Tarrazú region (around Santa María de Dota), at 1,600–1,900 metres, focused on honey-process and micro-lots. For three decades the coffee went mainly to European and North American roasters, priced off the New York C price, with margins getting thinner every year.
In 2024 they decided to try China: a large market where specialty coffee is growing fast — but they had no idea how Chinese buyers select, price or accept green coffee.
Our role
We served as the client's China market-entry partner, owning the chain from market research and product specification to channel access.
What we did
- Visited 30+ cafés and roasters across Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen to map buying criteria: traceable micro-lots, clearly stated process, and an SCA cupping score above 84 are the hard entry conditions
- Converted 69 kg sacks into 250 g / 1 kg retail packs, rebuilt Chinese labels for GB 7718 pre-packaged food compliance, and walked the imported-food filing route
- Rewrote the product story in Chinese: farm altitude, process, harvest lot, cupping score — and cut the vague poetic copy
- Moved pricing from "C price plus premium" to per-lot pricing, fixing 6 SKUs for the first batch
- Arranged participation in the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and HOTELEX Shanghai, then connected importers, Tmall Global and JD Worldwide flagship stores, plus direct buying from specialty cafés
Outcome
The first batch entered 18 channels (direct café buying, e-commerce flagship stores and regional roasters), with repeat orders within 4 months. Second-harvest volumes doubled, and the client now reserves micro-lots specifically for China.
What we see
Chinese buyers are not short of coffee — they are short of coffee that can be clearly explained: which plot, what altitude, which process, what cupping score. Get those right and you earn the right to talk about premium; get them wrong and you are priced off the futures board.